What I am reading (or trying to) for Summer 2012

The only time that I really get a chance to read properly and consistently at all but I'm looking foward to getting my teeth stuck in, so here is my ambitious list!
If you've read any of these and you think they're a waste of reading time or were the best thing you ever read then let me know
or.. If you think something is truly lacking from my list- tell me tell me!

The five people you meet in heaven by Mitch Albom, people have told me great things about it!

Can we still be friends by Alexandra Shulman (editor of British Vogue) It sounds a little autbiographal in terms of story but I'm looking foward to it

They Gypsy Dressmaker by Thelma Madine (dress maker from the tv show My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding) That show is my guilty pleasure, so reading an autobiography based on the show is just an extension of that!

The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman - This was made into the most incredible movie, I didn't put it on my 'Saturday night Movies' blog post because it's pretty bleak, and I don't want anyone to be put off by me saying that it is a war movie, because we all immediately think that war movies must mean khaki coloured dust. This is much more a personal account of a Jewish man set in World War II and how he's treated and how the tables turn.

The Sea on Our Skin by Madeleine Tobert- Unfortauntely this is a classic case of judging a book buy it's cover, the cover is so fun and tropical, and I wanted something a little light hearted!

 So there you have it, maybe this isn't an ambitious list for you, but for 3 months-ish it's quite ambitious for me but I can't wait to get started! If any of them are close to life changing you bet your bottom dollar I'll do a post on it at a leter date!

Miles and miles and miles of ruffles!

There's nothing I love more than lots of bright colours, and ruffles but I never could have dreamt up wedding dresses like these...



It all comes from the television show 'My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding' Which I heard is going to be or already is airing in the US.
The dresses are out of this world, and unlike anything I have ever seen in my life! They are true Disney princess dresses that I never knew existed for people like you and me to own and wear!

The dress that might just be the most memorable is the famous 'cat dress' yes, this lady had an actual cat on her wedding dress! Inspired by the brand Baby Phatt- and the theme spread across to the cake too to make a 'cat cake'

The dress maker of lots of the dresses is situated in Liverpool UK and called Thelma Madine, her shop is called Nico.
For the dresses she makes she uses literally miles and miles of fabric and hundreds of thousands of crystals.
The process sounds so time consuming however I would love to be a fly on the wall in the work room just for a day! To oversee the extraordinary sight of having to pin and manage all that fabric under the single needle of a sewing machine.

Every show is not always so lighthearted and fun and lavishly scattered with crystals and rainbow coloured dresses; there's a serious side to the show in regards to the culture and lifestyle of travellers.

But it's the dresses and dress making that I love best! It makes me want to switch my life ambitions to become a dress maker for travellers! How fun would it be to make the kinds of things that you never even thought of into existance!

So perhaps the 'ruffle yourself mad' look wasn't on the catwalks of London Fashion week- but it was on our television screens at least and since it was never classified as 'in style' it can never go 'out of style!' Right!??